Letters to the Editor for Sept. 21, 2011

By: Staff | Nelson County Times
Published: September 21, 2011

Regulations stifle private initiative

I read with interest the Sept. 15 issue article regarding the efforts and intentions of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to bring the several rivers in Nelson County into compliance with federal environmental standards.

I read this against the backdrop of the upcoming Supreme Court case "Sackett vs. U.S. EPA." This case challenges the awesome unchecked punitive power of the federal government bureaucracy over the people. Please allow me to bring this greater issue to the citizens of Nelson County by way of the its rivers and streams.

The EPA, through the DEQ, as provided for in the Clean Water Act, wants to make all Nelson County rivers and streams safe for swimming, a truly Norman Rockwellian goal. The DEQ report states that 86 percent of the bacteria deposited in the North Fork of the Rockfish River is from livestock and wildlife.

Please come with me on a mythical journey that, until I read about the Sackett case, even I could not imagine.

Let us put aside the droppings of livestock and wildlife. Let us consider only a pet, your dog. I would be surprised if all Nelson County residents follow their pet dog around with a pooper scooper as is done on the streets of New York. So, every day your pet contributes to the pollution of the Nelson County rivers and streams, the James River and the Chesapeake Bay. You are a polluter subject to the punitive regulations of the EPA under provisions of the Clean Water Act. The Sacketts found out what this meant when they started to build their house after obtaining all of the necessary local ordinance permits. Not with standing documentation to the contrary, the EPA said, "You are in violation of EPA regulations and will be fined some $37,500 a day for every day you are in violation." or "Give us $100,000 for a permit." Get out the pooper scoopers!

It is not my desire to question the intentions or goals of the DEQ. It is rather to point out that we have, over the course of some 40 years, created a monster. The unseen consequences of good intentions have placed us in the anteroom of autocracy. Should we not also worry about the tens of thousands of Obamacare regulations?

BOB DEWEY

Wintergreen

Great job as sheriff

I would like to commend Sheriff David Brooks for the awesome job he has done for the community since his election four years ago.

He had been promoted by Sheriffs Woods and Brantley, who saw great leadership promise in the young officer moving up the ranks. However, once he was elected, he immediately began instituting public safety programs that have made Nelson County a safer place to live.

He is a founding member of TRIAD, an organization dedicated to the safety of our senior citizens. He offered the first ever NRA gun safety classes and women’s self defense classes in Nelson County. He also created the first Cop Camp for Kids, and has raised funds to equip every patrol car with automatic external defibrillators.

An ever-present attendee of community events, he knows the citizens he serves. Nelson County is a safer place because of his leadership.